A different point of view in the world of wine.

March 2008

March 11, 2008

Three thoughts;1) Wine is food.2) Wine is culture3) Wine makes community

The first is an old idea, fully realized while working at a wine shop in Oakland. (Life is funny, the work experience that I am most proud of is the one few people here in TX know anything about.) Basically, the idea is that wine is produced from an agricultural product and made by artisans and craftsmen with the intention of being served with a meal. It’s not an accompaniment to food, it’s part of the food itself – good wine makes food taste better, and good food makes wine taste better. I try not to be a hater on this blog, so I’ll just say that wine with good acidity, moderate alcohol, and little or no flavors of wood tend to be the best to serve with food – we like foods that have acidity, alcohol kills your taste buds, and few of us out there actually eat wood.

I keep harping about the second idea. Music, art, books, comics, film, fine meals, clothes; all of these things are made by people who care about what they do, and are driven to create. Wine is no different. All of these things have both a mainstream that creates a “brand” for mass consumption (often on a tremendous scale) as well as a smaller set of individuals that create their product out of an interest in that product. There are pop musicians who simply want to sell records, there are folks who make music because they love music. Some are conceptual and idea oriented, others are more visceral and emotive. The world of wine has the same diversity, the same gulf between big brands and small producers, the same differences in inspiration and execution. (You don’t buy your music at the mall, you shouldn’t buy your wine at the grocery store.)

The last is obviously more nebulous. It’s a new idea for me, so I probably haven’t completely cemented what I mean. Obviously the idea of community is a pretty hard concept to define. All I know is that sharing wine and a meal with friends makes them closertofamily, with family makes them more like friends, and with strangers makes them more familiar. Many of us want to build a sense of community with our neighbors, with our peers, with the folks out there (both IRL and online) that love the same things we love – sharing and exploring wine helps. Searching for wine made with honesty, that reflects where it comes from – that’s creating community.

This is the stuff I think about. I encourage everyone out there to think about it too. Have some wine with your dinner, ask your local shop for wine made by a small producer, share a glass with others - it's really pretty simple, and feels good too.

March 01, 2008

It’s Saturday night, and Wade & I are living our normal party animal lifestyle. He’s watching HGTV, and I’m reading about wine on the web. It’s actually quite nice, a mellow end to a day spent working on our house, and attending Staple.

Wanna be like us? Here’s how:

Salad Lyonaise (pantry version)- Baby Spinach- 4 slices of bacon- handful of croutons- mild vinaigrette- 2 eggsFry the bacon in a pan, then cut up into chunks. Toss the spinach, croutons, and bacon in the vinaigrette, and spli it between two plates. Either poach the eggs, or fry them over-easy, then put the egg on top of the salad.

After dinner, while finishing the bottle of wine (if there’s two of you, how hard is that?) check out the following places on the world wide web:

More than Organic – la Crémerie is one of the best places in Paris to drink wine, eat cheese, and generally live life to it’s fullest. This site, developed by one of the founders of la Crémerie, provides a great overview of what natural wine is all about, and references some of the figures of the Vin Naturel “movement” in France. There’s also info on the authors new spot Racines (god I want to go to Paris!)

SF Joe’s Loire Valley tasting reports on Wine Therapy, parts 1 & 2 – For the last two years, I was lucky enough to visit the Salon des Vins de la Loire with l’Equipe Dressner. Even though two trips does not a routine make, I felt a little blue that I wasn’t there with the team this year. SF Joe is a regular on the trip – a trained chemist and securities broker who lives in New York (but spends much time in SF), Joe is one of the most knowledgeable person I’ve ever had the opportunity to drink wine with. His descriptions of what he tasted in early February are amazing, they’re gonna make you want to drink all sorts of great wine.

Now I’m just obsessed. If you like Stereolab, Electrelane, Tortoise, Radiohead, or anything a little bent and groovin’ this is a musical scene you should check out. The Prog Archives obviously cover a lot of other types of music, I’m sticking with the Krautrock and Post-Rock/Math-Rock sections for now…

Well, the bottle’s empty, and House Hunters is on, so I’ll leave you all to check this stuff out until my next post.

I'm going to read comics. For some reason, putting all of the links into this post makes me wish I had two different colored eyes.